Occidental Petroleum’s decision late last month to abandon exploration at its Siriri field in northeastern Colombia brought sighs of relief from leaders of the 7,000-member, nature worshipping U’wa tribe, but it worried energy experts who say Colombia will run out of oil—its No.1 export—by 2005. Colombia’s government had hoped a major discovery at the Siriri field, formerly known as the Samoré block, would yield 1.3 billion barrels in new reserves and $14 billion in oil exports for the nation over the next 25 years. The company’s announcement that it had found natural gas and condensates, but no oil, and would remove its equipment from the site while it further evaluated the project disappointed drilling advocates. They fear that Colombia’s once-promising...
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Amid an energy shortage and power rationing, Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) met Aug. 1 to discuss plans to build the $2.5 billion, 1,350-megawatt Angra III nuclear plant and the $6 billion, 11,000-megawatt Belo Monte hydroelectric dam. A drought has severely depleted the supply of hydroelectric power, the source of over 90% of Brazil’s electricity, and prompted the government to require all residential consumers and most industrial consumers to cut power use by 20% between June and the end of the year. The rationing is meant to avoid rolling blackouts and unscheduled power interruptions. Some here had speculated that in view of the energy shortage, the CNPE—which includes seven government ministers and representatives of the power sector—might show strong support...
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Xcacel, site of a prized nesting beach for endangered loggerhead sea turtles, will not become home to a 1,400-room tourist resort, the Mexican government announced this month. The decision by Semarnat, Mexico’s Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat, was hailed by green advocates as a breakthrough in Mexican environmental regulation. Spanish developers Sol Meliá, accepting the agency ruling that water runoff from the project would have harmed the nesting ground, will look for alternatives to the Yucatán peninsula site. One argument used in favor of the development had been that the project would encourage tourism in the state of Quintana Roo. However, Juan Carlos Cantú, Greenpeace Mexico’s biodiversity campaigner, pointed out that more than 800 companies from North America, Argentina and Europe had together invested...
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Chile’s forest service (Conaf) announced late last month that after years of disagreement, the nation’s timber industry, environmental groups and the government have signed an accord establishing the principles for long-overdue native-forest legislation. The law will hinge on the use of subsidies to ensure sustainable management of the country’s remaining original temperate rainforests, more than 80% of which are in the hands of timber companies and other private owners. “The subsidies seek to annul the possibility that landowners will abandon their forests or destroy them by increasing the value of maintaining or managing the forest,” Conaf Executive Director Carlos Weber told EcoAméricas. Under the proposed law, which must be reviewed by the finance ministry, private forest owners could receive a one-time payment...
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